Bloodshot Announces Return of The Blacks

Digital only EP will have a lot of cool add-ons. Perfect for when you're high, even!

By Blurt Staff

Who remembers The Blacks? One of the more exciting bands to emerge out of late ‘90s Chicago, they issued two great albums (1998's Dolly Horrorshow and 2000's Just Like Home, both on Bloodshot) then, in their own words, "flamed out" under their own volatility. They came back together, however, for a reunion show at the Bloodshot Records 15^th Anniversary Hideout Block Party in the fall of 2009. Now comes the recorded fruits of the reunion, a digital-only EP titled In Sickness and Health, due March 9 on Bloodshot.

The first 300 downloads come with a limited-edition poster designed by Danny Black and silk screened by Crosshair Silkscreen. All downloads of the EP include an enhanced package of lyrics, original artwork, photos and the documentary on the Blacks rise and fall, "Bring It Back From The Dead" by John Boston and Glorious Noise Productions.

Now THAT sounds like a bargain. Incidentally, don't confuse the band with another outfit, the San Francisco-based Blacks. Go here for their Bloodshot artist page.

Some details on the EP, courtesy Bloodshot:

Book-ending the EP are stark confessionals that could be comfortably sung in a dimly lit basement studio or on the railing of a bridge.  As we enter a new decade, singer/guitarist Danny Black's near-whispered "Ten Years" is the theme song for blown chances and wasted time, while bassist/singer Gina Black (classically trained, but beats and bows the stand-up like few others) sings "If It All Falls Through" teetering on desperation, her voice cracking and breathless with resignation or hope, it's hard to tell.  Maybe she doesn't even know.  Maybe it's the same thing.

In between are four songs bursting with sanguine energy. From the Flaming Lips soar of "Can't Explain" to the Tom Waits gutter poetry of "Bottled & Flat" to the X inflected fractured romance of "I'm In Love," The Blacks alchemical balance of orchestral punk, rootsy psychedelia and gut bucket snarl conjures many reference points, but remains uniquely theirs.  Guitarist/singer Nora O'Connor, (who spent much of the past decade singing with Andrew Bird, New Pornographers, Neko Case and Mavis Staples, as well as releasing the solo album 2004's Til the Dawn), with her simple raw and melodic playing and ethereal bluebird of a voice, and drummer James Emmenegger, all wide lapels and flailing arms, round out this, the classic line up of the Blacks, and make them more than the sum of their parts; their particular talents and demons making for fertile and exhilarating turns, and the production making for an intimate  headphones record, suitable for when you're low or when you're high.